Next Contestant
by ookami desu
Summary: "Is that... his hand... on MY girlfriend?" she asked, her hands clenching onto her glass so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "Well, here comes the next contestant," the bartender jested as he watched Nao make her way over to the table where some guy decided to put his hand on her girlfriend's ass. MaiNao. Set in the same universe as Control.


**Disclaimer****:** As per usual, Mai HiME does not belong to me in any way, shape, or form.

Hey guys! I'm back with another MaiNao fanfic. This was stuck in my head since I've been listening to Nickelback's a lot. I'm sure you can guess which song inspired this. (See title.)

Enjoy!

* * *

Nao walked into the restaurant at exactly 9:00PM, just in time to see her girlfriend walk out of the kitchen and chatter with her waitress friends. Her legs automatically took her the to one of the stools by the bar, taking a seat closest to it's entrance.

"Hey there, Mai's girlfriend," the bartender greeted, sliding over a glass of lemon water to the visitor. "Right on time. Like clockwork."

The bartender was a man somewhere in his 20s, with jet black hair and forest-green eyes. His rugged features combined with his baritone voice swooned most of the ladies he served. He often joked that his livelihood depended on his good looks and smooth voice, but Nao knew better. He was an educated man, so Nao guessed that most of his money went towards sustaining himself and his schooling.

"Thanks," she replied, her eyes never leaving her carrot-top girl as she reached for her drink. "Anyone yet?"

"Just one, but he's been tame so far," he replied, mixing a drink for the patron sitting next to her. He noticed the very slight twitch on the corner of her lips and the tightening of her arm muscles as she lifted the glass of water to her lips. "Don't go causing trouble for her now. It's sweet how protective you are of her, but she's going to tire of it soon."

The redhead took a large gulp of water before answering. "I don't approve of her working here. I told her I didn't want her working here, yet she didn't listen and chose to do it anyway. There are too many perverts. I can't stand by when these assholes are coming on to her every night she works."

"She's hot. She's kind. And she's got a nice rack. It's inevitable that people will want to get into her pants," he replied apathetically.

"_You_ don't want to get into her pants though," Nao countered, before quirking a brow at him. "Or is there something about you that I should know?"

"She's not my type. I like 'em this big," he said, his left hand held up to mimic cupping breasts. "I don't get people who like em too big."

"Me neither."

"You're dating her."

"Not for her boobs. I'm dating her because-" Nao's eyes narrowed as she stopped mid-sentence, causing the bartender to pause in his work.

"Because..." he urged, but he already knew her attention was elsewhere. He followed her line of sight and found what it was that made Nao stop mid-rant. "That can't be good..." he muttered under his breath.

"Is that... his hand... on MY girlfriend?" she asked, her hands clenching onto her glass so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"Well, here comes the next contestant," the bartender jested as he watched Nao make her way over to the table where some guy decided to put his hand on _her_ girlfriend's ass.

Nao grabbed onto the perpetrator's shoulder to get his attention. "Is that your hand... on MY girlfriend's ass?" she asked coldly, glaring daggers into him.

The world drowned out as soon as he turned around to face her with a cocky grin on his stupid lips. He brought his hands back to himself now; one rested on the table and the other was on his knee. She could faintly make out Mai pleading for her to stop making trouble, but Nao couldn't really hear any words at the moment. She saw red the second this sleazebag decided to put his hands where it doesn't belong.

"Not sure what yer talkin' about, little girl," he replied smugly. "You sayin' you want my hands on yer ass? Cause I can do that."

His right hand, the one that was resting on his knee, took flight and moved towards the redhead. Before he could reach his destination, however, Nao grabbed it midway. She braced herself before twisting his wrist, yanking him off of his seat, and swiping his foot so that he fell face-first onto the floor next to her.

"Why, you bitch!" he yelled angrily as he scrambled to his feet.

"My apologies," Nao replied, obviously not apologizing at all. "It's an automatic reaction to molesters."

"The fuck are you rambling about," he spat.

"I'm sorry for causing trouble," the redhead said to her girlfriend softly with a smile. "Are you okay?"

"Oi, don't ignore me, you bitch!"

"I'm fine, Nao, but you know you shouldn't even be here. You have a lot of your own plate right now. You don't have time to camp out here and wait for me to get off work all the time."

"I make time. We've already talked about this. If you insist on continuing your employment here, then I insist on coming to all of your shifts to check in on you. If assholes like these," Nao pointed at the person she just pushed to the floor, "weren't here every night, hitting on you, coming on to you, _molesting_ you, then I wouldn't be doing this."

"I said to stop fucking ignoring me!" he cried as he stepped forward and threw a punch at Nao, catching her by surprise.

She knew that dodging would be moot since he was already in such close distance, so her body reflexively brought her arms up in hopes of blocking the attack. Unfortunately for her, he was much stronger than she was, so her efforts to block his punch only served to slow its velocity, but did not stop the punch itself, causing her cheek to be bruised.

Her eyes were locked on her opponent as she licked the inside of her bruised cheek to check for blood. When she confirmed there was none, she let her lips settle into a lopsided grin. "Sure, I'll fight you, but I'd rather settle this outside. Unless you want to be on this restaurant's blacklist..."

Grunting, he muttered something incoherent under his breath before turning his heel and started walking out. Nao looked around her and noticed that she caught the attention of every patron in the vicinity. Putting on a smile, she assured them that everything was okay now and that they should continue to enjoy their meal. Shrugging, the patrons took her words at face value and continued chatting amongst themselves without a care in the world for what just happened.

"Now then," she said, more to herself than anyone else. "The next contestant is waiting for me..."

"Nao," Mai cut through, her voice cold as steel. "When I get off work tonight, we need to talk."

"Yes," she replied, voice matching the coldness of her girlfriend's. "We do."

Without waiting another second, the redhead walked out of the restaurant and over to where the assole was waiting for her.

"Didn't think you'd actually show yerself," he sneered.

"Didn't think you'd actually stay," Nao replied. "I thought you'd take your chance to run away."

"Tch, I'm not 'fraid of some little girl."

"Enough talk. I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my girlfriend. Think you can just grab her ass in front of me and get away with it? Think again."

Nao didn't give him time to respond. She immediately lunged towards him, throwing punches and kicks his way. He dodged some and blocked some, but unfortunately for him, she was faster than he was. Much faster. She threw feints that he dodged, but then the real punch would come exactly half a second later to hit its intended target. This was not to say that he was an easy opponent, because he wasn't.

Whenever he blocked, he somehow managed to throw his own punches towards her. She tried to dodge most of them because she knew that she would lose to him in terms of strength; the first punch he threw at her in the restaurant was proof enough. Unfortunately, there were times when he was too close to dodge, and her blocking efforts were usually in vain, so she received quite a few bruises throughout the fight.

The end victor was decided, however, when she decided to employ the help of her brass knuckles. She wished she could finish the fight without it, but at the rate that it was going, she feared that even if she did win, it would be by a thread. She had an important talk with her girlfriend tonight; she didn't want to go home half-dead from a fight. Especially when she knew that the topic of the talk would be exactly this.

"So, you wanted to talk," Nao started as soon as they were both in the apartment.

"I want you to stop coming to the restaurant when I'm working," Mai walked over to the dining table and took a seat.

Taking the seat across from her, Nao asked, "Why?"

"You keep picking fights with the customers. It's not good for business. I'll get fired because of you."

"Good. You shouldn't be working there anyway."

"Why are you so against me working there?"

"Because people like that asshole I beat up today keep showing up. Mai, I don't like you having to work in that kind of environment. How can you stand having someone else's hand on your ass?"

"It's not like I like that either-"

"And all the people who keep coming on to you and trying to get into your-"

"It's not like I want they're attent-"

"And the worst part is that it's not just the guys who do this! I even catch other woman ogling your breasts!"

"Shut up!" she cried, tears in her eyes as she tries desperately to cover her ears and stop hearing all of Nao's words.

"Why?!" she yelled. "Why should I have to shut up?! Why should I have to stand back and watch this?!"

"You don't understand what the hell is going on, do you?!"

"Because you won't tell me!"

"Takumi needs surgery, Nao! He needs heart surgery! And this is the best paying job I could find!" Mai shouted, her outburst signaling the end of their yelling match.

"You need money... so that you can pay for it..." Nao finally understood. "Why... why didn't you tell me?"

"You have a lot on your plate right now," she answered, much softer now that they've calmed down from their anger. "I-I didn't want to bother you."

Nao sucked in her breath and ruffled her hair in frustration. Was she really so unreliable that her girlfriend couldn't depend on her in her time of need?

After some minutes of thinking, she combed her fingers through her tresses, fixing it so that every strand was back in it's original place. "You're an idiot. I was more bothered having to make sure assholes didn't try to feel you up all the time."

"I'm sorry... but I can take care of this myself. So please, don't worry about it."

Nao stood from her seat and walked around the table to stand behind her girlfriend. She leaned over her and wrapped her arms around her violet-eyed girlfriend, placing her lips by the shell of her right ear. "I'll pick up a few extra shifts at my job and talk to some of the higher-ups. Quit your job and find another. Something that wouldn't make me worry about you. We'll make it work somehow. I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you, Nao... but I can't ask you to do this."

"You aren't asking me to do anything. I'm doing it because I want to."

"But there's no guarantee that I'll find anything anytime soon. If I quit now, I'll be even more of a burden because I won't have any income."

"It's fine. I'll be able to manage."

"No, I'll quit when I've found something else."

"No, tomorrow. I'll talk to..." Nao wanted to continue her sentence smoothly, but it proved to be a difficult task. "I'll talk to _her_ and see if maybe she can pull some strings for you."

"Her?" Mai asked, confused. "You mean, Natsuki?"

"No," she replied stiffly. "Her girlfriend."

"Shizuru?!"

"I hear that she's taking over for her father, but before she does, she needs to prove herself to him. I've heard noise that she needs a few helpers. You're smart and on your way to graduating summa cum laude... you don't have your degree yet, but it's only a matter of months. I think you'll make a good addition to Fujino's team."

"You're... you're not opposed to it?" Mai asked, shocked. She found herself standing face to face with her hot-headed girlfriend. "You're really willing to talk to Shizuru for me? And to let me work for her?"

Gritting her teeth, Nao replied. "I don't like the idea, but I'm not stupid. This is the best course of action given our circumstances. And I'm just talking to her. I don't even know what she's looking for and if she'll even want you on her team."

"I know, but the fact that you're willing to do this for me... I love you." Mai moved forward and captured Nao into a death grip of a hug.

"Air..." Nao gasped.

The busty woman chuckled a little before loosening her grip, but made no move to let go. "I really mean it."

"I know," the lime-eyed woman replied, returning the hug. "And you know that I love you too..."

"Hey Nao?"

"Hm?"

"What do you mean by 'talk to the higher-ups'?"

"I was offered a promotion, but it required me to take on a bunch of responsibilities that I didn't really care to do, so I was about to reject it. But now, I think I'll take it. I get a pay raise."

"What kind of responsibilities?"

"Stupid administrative stuff. Extra paper-work. I don't really want to get into it, but it's really not all that important; and it's not impressive enough to brag about."

"Thank you, Nao. Can we have sex now?"

"Eh? What's the occasion?"

"I love you, and right now, I want to show you how much."

Without wasting another breath, her lips were nibbling on Nao's neck, causing a small smile to form on the younger woman's lips before she succumbed to her primal pleasures.

* * *

**A/N****:** Hope you guys liked that. It is part of my MaiNao collection. This one falls a lot more into the future to where Mai is a senior in college and things are a lot more serious. :D


End file.
